Obama Advances Healthcare Reform With Rabbi Hillel’s Help

Ilana Goldfus — March 9, 2010 – 2:40 pm | Barack Obama | Congress | Health Care Comments (1) Add a comment

Nearly two thousand years ago, Rabbi Hillel famously said, “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?”

That same sentiment and language is being used by President Barack Obama on healthcare reform. Giving a speech at Arcadia University on Monday, the President said, “If not now, when? If not us, who?” He went on to explain that healthcare has been debated for nearly a century since the time of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency.

He criticized the current private insurance system as unsustainable:

[Private insurance companies] will keep doing this for as long as they can get away with it. How much higher do premiums have to rise until we do something about it? How many more Americans have to lose their health insurance? How many more businesses have to drop coverage?

As a result, President Obama is pushing healthcare forward despite the gridlock in Congress. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday that he, along with other Congressional Democrats, are working to take steps forward on healthcare reform before Congress breaks for Easter on March 27th.

 

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